Boom By Jean Tay

Singapore, 2007: a city growing faster than its history can contain. Even the dead aren’t spared, as sprawling cemeteries make way for shiny skyscrapers. Amidst this, a reformed-gangster-turned-property-agent dreams of a better life while his ageing mother clings onto their family home as it is slated for redevelopment. As they face their past being swept away, it comes back to haunt them when Jeremiah, an idealistic civil servant with a gift for talking to corpses, unearths some memories…. Welcome to the surreal world of “Boom”.

In this quirky and poignant tale, Jean Tay skilfully conveys the sense of dislocation and loss felt in many Asian cities in the unrelenting march of development. A city dreams of progress, but what memories are lost on the way?